Friday, January 22, 2016

Here is a great offer by our friends next door at assauge massage if you havnt got a massage from them before. I keep on top of my mobility but every time i see them they find a area that needs work straight away. Get on top of issues before they become injuries, massage is a great tool for this.

“I had no idea I was that sore/tight...!!”

(Why and when is massage an important addition to your
self-care)

The most frequent cause of injuries we (massage therapists) see
in clients is;

A substantial, recent change in exercise type, frequency, or
volume.

Some examples include:

·Taking up a new sport.

·Increased distance in the build up to a
marathon.

·Increased intensity in the build up to the
Crossfit Open.

·Increased volume as part of a new training
program.

All of the above points are good things to do, but need to
be done gradually to minimise the risk of injury.

There are plenty of self-care and mobility techniques you
can use to manage muscle tension yourself. So much so that Kelly Starrett has
been able to write two good books on the topic.

…BUT …many of your potential injury areas are tight well
before you are aware of it and you can sustain an injury in an area where you
have felt no pain prior to the event.

The number one most common thing we here from clients is;

“I had no idea I was that sore/tight...!!”

Everyone has different level of body awareness, but even
some of the most ‘body aware’ people I’ve treated have been unaware of
significant problems areas.

If these areas are not found and addressed early enough then
they can significantly increase the risk of injury.

Have you:

·Just started at Crossfit?

·Taken some time off and are hitting your
exercise with avengance for 2016?

·Made plans to compete in the Crossfit open?

·Had injuries in the past that are worrying you?

Yes? Then it’s time to book a massage.

Ask one of our Coaches for a voucher for $30 off your
initial consult.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

As a crossfit coach we get asked many questions about how to improve
performance. Big ones like nutrition, lifting technique down to do i
need to colour co-ordinate my kit?(sorry Rosco) A massively under rated
tool to our lives is sleep.At the start of february @2600 we a
holding a health challenge that has 5 components to it. These are
nutrition,training, mobility,water consumption and SLEEP. To get a pass
mark for sleep you will need to record the time you slept and also the
quality of it.So whats in it for me? The benefits for sleep are
huge. What first triggered my interest in how i slept was for athletic
performance. Recovery is a massive training tool and sleep repairs
muscle and releases human growth hormone(HGH) during the deeper phases
of sleep. It also sorts through our memories for the day to see whats
important to keep and disgard. The glymphatic system is located in the
CNS and during sleep it removes alot of toxins from the brain.So how
can we get a better sleep? In the hour leading up to bed time turn off
all electronic devices that emit blue light. This light will simulate
morning light and therfore keep arousal levels high. As evening
approaches the body will release the hormone melatonin and body temp
will fall preparing us for sleep. When the morning light rises melatonin
decreases, cortisol increases along with body temp ready to wake up.During
sleep we need the room to be totally blacked out, no tv, air-con light
or even digital clock as this can disrupt our circadian rhythm. The
circadian rhythm tells our body when to sleep and be awake and also
during sleep the 90min sleep cycles. In the sleep cycles there are 2
main parts, non-rapid eye movement( of which this is broken into 4
parts, 1-2 light moderate and 3-4 deep sleep) and rapid eye
movement(REM). During parts 3-4 and REM is where most of the restoration
of the body and mind takes place.Other factors in quality of sleep
can be mattres/pillow comfort, noisy street or partner(snoring),
alcohol,caffine and stesses in our lives. I know if i have high stress
and my cortisol (stress hormone) levels are high i wake up around 2am
thinking about the cause of the stress. In saying that the 8 hour
unbroken sleep is relatively new with the industrial revolution and the
artificial lighting of streets. Before then many people speculate that
we had a 'segmented sleep' with humans going to bed early, waking up for
around 2 hours then going back to sleep for the remaning 4 hours.The
dangers of not getting enough sleep include depression, faster ageing,
forgetfullness, slow reaction times similar to low level drunk driving
and a increase in appetite with cravings for high fat/carb foods, along
with not letting the body and mind fully recover from the days
activities. The military have long used sleep deprivation to break a
person down. Everyone has their breaking point and sleep is the easiest
and fastest way to do this. Being awake for 48 hours certainly
challenges your thought process and mental toughness.As i wake up at
04:15 i need to get to bed by 20:15!!!! Sometimes my 8 and 10 year old
put me to bed. It was hard at the start to get out of the habit of
watching tv or reading but as soon as you get used to waking up fresh
you cant wait for your head to hit the pillow. If you dont get the
required 8 -9 hours per night dont worry as you can sleep bank. This
means over the course of the week if you miss a hour or 2 you can bank a
couple of hours on the weekend with a nap or 2. I know after Sunday
lunch im fighting for my life not to sleep straight away.We are asleep 1/3 of our lives, lets make it positive so we can thrive in the other 2/3

Big Heathy putting some hours into his 'sleep bank' back at Deakin days!!!!